Shockfire
by Atomic.Phenom
Summary: With her family gone, and the corrupt trackers on her tail, outlaw heiress Mai Sasaki must team up with Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke to save their villages from war. In a tale of thrills, and a little romance, this unlikely hero will finally face her destiny
1. Chapter 1

"Check over there..." one of the trackers said."She can't have gotten far. Not with the amount of chakra she's used up." Footsteps shuffled by the stout bush the girl was hiding in. _this definitely won't work for long_. she thought desperately. Her mind raced. They couldn't find her; that just wasn't an option. Not when she was so close to the border. She could almost see the edge of the fog, or she would have been able to if she wasn't crouched to the dew strewn grass clutching a scrap of cotton against her wrist to stem the flow of blood.

Another pair of feet splashed down the path. How many of them are there?! She thought, stubbornly telling herself that it was completely unrealistic to send the entire fleet after her. She knew it was true though. Yukio would use all the force he could to keep her in the country.

"I think I've got her!!" One of the trackers shouted. The girl instantly froze.

"Captain! Over here!" _NO_. she thought defiantly. But she couldn't hear any footsteps around her, and smiled to herself. _Must be one of the clones. False alarm_. and a laugh almost escaped her lips as she heard screams of frustration from the group of ninja a quarter of a mile away.

"HOW MANY OF THEM DID SHE MAKE!?" one of them yelled. The girl couldn't hold in her small laugh, but as soon as she did she drowned in regret.

"I heard something!" someone shouted. She mentally cursed herself. _Shit. I don't know if I have enough left!_ she thought in a panic. The fact that they didn't know her exact location was her only reprise. But it wouldn't be long before the entire fleet was bearing down on her. _I have to try_. she resolved stubbornly. And in one swift motion she stood to her feet and clasped her hands together in the first seal, going through them as quickly; she could she'd been spotted, but this was no time to freeze up. She touched her forefinger to the cloud emblem on her headband. This would be her last move. And it would work. It was her strongest: her last resort. The Sasaki Clan Kekkei Genkai, and only once in her 16 years had she ever used it.

"Fear Lightning no Jutsu!" she screamed. Her body felt instantly weak, and for one horrific moment, she thought it hadn't worked. But before her eyes the rocky landscape seemed to light up, and around every tracker ninja a jagged swirl of violet chakra seemed to be trapping them. She could hear the desperate screams as she saw the closest one drop to his knees, but she didn't have time to stick around. She launched herself from the bush and sprinted full speed down the path. It was her only chance.

She could see other trackers falling out of the corners of her eyes as she jumped over rocks and slid down the last hill. The fog was dissipating around her and the landscape was changing. But as she ran it was starting to change back. The fog was coming back. _How! NO!_ her voice rang in her head. _It can't be...happening_. she could barely think straight, and she stumbled, falling flat onto her chest. Her genjutsu wouldn't hold them off for long without her there. It couldn't even run its full effect if she wasn't there to maintain it. Especially with the small amount of chakra she had left when she used it. But it would make them weak. And in a last ditch effort she jumped up into the tallest tree she could see and collapsed on one of the thicker limbs.

It was all she could do not to fall off. Her vision was getting cloudy and the bandage around her wrist was soaked with blood now. Even if she hadn't exhausted her chakra supplies, the loss of blood would have made her woozy. The combination of both was dangerous, and deadly at worst. _stay awake..._ she pleaded to herself._stay. . .awake_. Everything was dark now and she couldn't tell if it was the shadows in the trees or her mind losing consciousness.

Desperately hoping it was the former she dug her fingers into the trees limb. She could hear them coming now: with thundering footsteps. She closed her eyes tight, desperately trying to gather energy. She couldn't pass out now. But even keeping her balance on the limb was waring on her, a task that under less trying conditions would have been effortless. She was about to give in, she could feel herself slipping away when she heard a voice. It was directly below her on the path.

"Stop." it said resolutely. Her eyes snapped open. It did not have the accent of the trackers. It was similar, but of a different area: perhaps a neighboring village. But what business someone of another village would have with the trackers chasing her was beyond Mai's comprehension. She certainly had no contacts in the other lands. She hadn't even been outside of her village in close to 10 years.

She glanced down between the leaves and saw a small group of people: three, maybe four. It was unclear since her vision was going in and out of focus. Maybe a foot away, very close was one of the trackers with a raised shuriken. It had stopped in a few inches from the neck of one of the foreigners. The boy had not even flinched. Surely there was some kind of Jutsu involved. Not only could she see the slight glint of a headband on the top of the head of one of his comrades, but only an idiot would tell a tracker ninja in full chase to simply stop, unless they had some way of stopping them. Otherwise, this boy would be dead right now. The girl in the tree rubbed her eyes trying to clear her vision. Hanging back a ways with an open book was a taller person. And sprinting to the dark haired boy's side was a fair haired boy.

"What do you think your doing?!" the fair haired boy yelled, shaking his fist at the tracker.

"Shut up Naruto." the dark haired boy said, reaching into his shuriken holster and pulling one out, letting it spin around his finger until he gripped it firmly in his hand. The tracker ninjas had assembled in a small group behind the frozen one.

"I am sorry. We have no business with you." One of the leaders said, stepping forward.

"Who do you seek?" the taller of the four asked, stepping to the other side of the raven haired boy.

"A fugitive from the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Sasaki Mai." The tracker said stiffly.

"We have seen no one on this path." the tallest said, snapping his book shut and stowing it under his belt.

"I'm not surprised. Why do you think the Trackers were sent?"

"What do you take us for!? Idiots?!" the fair haired boy demanded hastily. "We would have seen them. See? See?" he said pointing furiously to his headband. "I'm a chunnin from the Land of Fire! I would have seen them in an instant." The tallest of the four put a hand over the mouth of this boy.

"Is she dangerous?" he asked calmly, having no problem keeping the fair haired boy at bay.

"Yes Sir." _sir?_ she thought, _trackers are subordinate in rank only to Jounin. Perhaps he is of the Land of Fire too_. "Though she most likely poses no threat to travelers. We don't believe her intentions to be of a sinister nature."

"Well search the path if you must, but while Naruto may be a little too hasty, he is correct. We passed no one on the path." the tallest said.

"We must complete our search of the area. It is our duty Hatake Kakashi." The lead tracker bowed his head to Kakashi and stepped smoothly past the group. The one with a shuriken to the neck of the dark haired boy dropped it to his side and walked past him without a second glance. The rest of the group followed suit and once they were all past, the dark haired boy finally stowed his shuriken back in his holster.

The girl in the tree sat motionless until the trackers could be neither seen nor heard. For some reason the group below her had stalled, they were not moving either toward the fog that marked the edge of the Lightning Village, nor heading back the way they came. Kakashi had taken out his book again and was leaning on a tree reading it by the light of the moon, which was full tonight. The fair haired Naruto, who had initially started back up the path, had returned when no one had followed him, looking cross and impatient.

"What are we waiting for!!?" Naruto demanded, stomping his foot.

"Be patient Naruto." Kakashi said calmly.

"Kakashi-sensei!" the one with the bandana on her head called suddenly, before Naruto had a chance to object anymore. "Up in the tree!" The girl froze. How could they see her? She hadn't moved and she was blocked by limbs and leaves almost entirely. Not to mention it was dark.

"Very good Sakura. I had wondered when you would notice it." And before the girl could do anything but stare at the group blankly Kakashi was perched next to her calmly with his hands folded neatly in his lap. "Well if it isn't a Sasaki. Sasaki Mai." he said looking the girl directly in her eyes. It was all she could do not to fall out of the tree in surprise. How _does he know who I am?! _ She thought desperately. And as she stared into his face for some kind of recognition, none came. Though, most of his face was covered.

"And you are Kakashi, of the Hatake." she said in the most calm and steady voice she could muster. Mai didn't like seeming out of the loop.

"I don't believe we've ever met." Kakashi said bowing his head slightly. Mai mirrored him.

"No, I don't believe so either-"

"Kakashi-sensei!!" Naruto shouted with his hands cupped around his mouth. Birds flew from the treetops all around.

"Shut up Naruto!!!" the girl who'd spotted Mai hissed, pulling him into a headlock. He struggled for breath as she hissed in his ear again. "Don't you understand anything?!!" The dark haired boy laughed quietly and leaned back on a tree, but Mai's attention was drawn back to Kakashi in an instant.

"So then I guess you're wondering how I know you." he said. A slight grin, barely distinguishable under the bandana covering his face, could be heard clearly in his voice. Mai said nothing. Without the detectable threat of being killed her energy was waning. Her eyesight was getting fuzzy again and her head was starting to spin. "It has been a long time since I've thought about your father." Mai's attention sharpened briefly. "I knew him a long time ago. During the war between our villages."

"Were-...were you friends?" Mai asked, her voice wavering in her exhaustion.

"No." Mai said nothing, not because she had nothing to say, but because she couldn't find the strength to speak. Kakashi seemed to understand. "You need rest, Mai-san." And without waiting for an affirmative response, Kakashi hoisted Mai to her feet and into his arms. She could barely keep her eyes open now. She could feel the air lift her hair up as Kakashi jumped from the tree, landing back down with his comrades. But even through her squinted blurry vision, Mai could see that the other three were younger.

Kakashi was a Jounin as she had suspected. And the other three were his subordinates. "Sakura. Watch over Mai. We need cannot travel back to our village tonight. The trackers are searching the area. We will need to set up camp a little early tonight." The girl nodded and walked over to Mai's limp body as Kakashi set her down under cover of the trees. "Sasuke. Naruto, help me set up." he said in what seemed to be a distant voice as Mai tried in vain not to lose consciousness. The last thing she heard was Sakura telling her it would be alright.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning Mai woke up to an already blazing fire. Kakashi was sitting almost directly across from her roasting a link of sausage on a stick he held between two fingers. Surprisingly she remembered most of what had happened the night before. She was a little fuzzy on the names of the other two. The loud one she remembered as Naruto. She could see that he was still passed out a few yards away, his face and torso covered in a knit blanket. The dark haired boy was sitting next to Kakashi, and staring intently into the flames. The girl was no where to be seen.

"Ah, glad to see you awake Mai." Kakashi said, looking up from his stick. Mai had no idea what to say. She had met this man last night, and having already agreed upon the fact that they had never met, Kakashi was still addressing her like he'd known her his entire life.

"Good morning." she said simply, tying her long dark hair up with a ribbon that had been tied around her wrist. At this movement the other boy looked up, almost as if he had not noticed her presence at all. He said nothing however, and after a moment looked back into the fire.

"You must be hungry." Kakashi said handing her a stick already poking through a thick link of sausage. Mai nodded. Admittedly it had been nearly 2 days since she'd eaten. The journey from the palace had taken her much longer than anticipated since she had been forced to try and evade the trackers nearly the entire time. They had caught up to her less than 4 hours after she'd rushed out of the city walls, and she was traveling as fast as she could relative to how long it should have taken her. By the time she'd been forced to use her Kekkei Genkai she had pulled out the entire trick book and put down all of her aces. Until the night before she hadn't slept more than an hour out of the previous 48.

"Thank you." she said gratefully, hastily taking the stick from him. The other boy did not move this time. Had Mai not seen him react before she would have questioned whether he was still alive.

"So Mai." Kakashi said after a few moments of silence, during which Mai grew increasingly impatient with the amount of time it was taking for her sausage to cook. She looked up as he spoke. "I feel I owe you a bit of an explanation." Even in her starved, disillusioned state, Mai found it odd that a smirk could always be heard in Kakashi's voice.

"That is true." she said calmly, spinning the sausage.

"Last night when I told you I knew your father-"

"Noooo!! No. No. Nonono!" All eyes darted over to Naruto. "Did I miss breakfast?! Nonono." he whined, Mai jumped, startled by the urgency in his voice and by reflex reached toward her shuriken holster. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the eyes of the raven haired boy follow her hand, but he did not make any movements.

"No, Naruto. You didn't miss breakfast. It has barely started." Kakashi said turning his head to look at him.

"Idiot." the dark haired boy muttered. Naruto glared at him, but it went unnoticed.

"Where is Sakura-san?" he asked, looking around the group, but as his eyes landed on Mai they stopped. She had since put her shuriken back and turned her attention back to the sausage. Naruto's mouth gaped a little and he rushed over. Completely forgetting about breakfast, he sat down between Mai and the dark haired boy, earning another silent glare.

"Sakura is making sure our concealment jutsu wasn't tampered with." Naruto didn't seem to be paying attention.

"Mai-san was it?" he asked, staring hard at the girl. She nodded timidly, pulling her sausage out of the flames and beginning to eat. It was the best sausage she'd ever tasted, though at this point, woodchips would have been appetizing. "My name is Naruto!" he said energetically. Mai found it baffling that he could have so much energy within 2 minutes of waking up. She nodded again; her mouth was full of sausage, but if it hadn't been she wouldn't have been able to come up with a proper response anyway. She was saved from a reaction though by the arrival of the fourth person in their party. Sakura had walked up silently and sat down on Mai's other side.

"Hello Sasaki Mai." she said politely, bowing her head. Mai mirrored her. "My name is Sakura." Mai was once again silent. Sakura already knew her name, so she couldn't very well introduce herself, and she probably looked quite foolish and disoriented with her hair tied up ungracefully and chomping on a link of sausage like a savage. She managed a polite smile as Sakura continued. "So you're from the Village hidden in the Clouds?" she asked. Mai nodded; her mouth was full, and the long silence that followed showed Mai that Sakura had either taken her responses to be disinterested, or impolite, or that like Mai, she had nothing more to say. Mai swallowed her last bit of sausage hard and looked up.

"You all are from Konoha then?" she asked. It was Sakura who answered.

"Yes, we were on a mission to your village."

"...were?" Mai asked. Naruto, who had found a stick and put his own sausage on it, was now twirling it over the open flame and it seemed in danger of falling off.

"Well, as it seems, we've completed our mission a little ahead of schedule." Kakashi said; Mai looked over at him.

"Does this have something to do with me?" she asked, feeling a contorted mixture of fear and excitement. Had the news of her clan's upheaval traveled so far so fast, or were these people really in league with Yukio. What business did they have helping her?

"Not directly, but your presence and current condition give us enough information for the time being." Kakashi said enigmatically. "As I'm sure you already know, our Villages are on the verge of war." This was in fact news to Mai. She had extensive knowledge of the disagreements between the Lightning and Fire nations, but over the last month her preoccupation with the death of her father had caused her attention to fade. The only piece of valuable information she'd absorbed over the last month was that Yukio had broken one of the agreements in their peace treaty. Though she did not know which one, or how severely.

"I'm not sure what you mean." Mai said now rapt with attention. Kakashi looked suddenly up to the treetops. Sakura tensed up next to her and the dark haired boy's hand moved swiftly to his shuriken holster.

"I'm not sure we have time to explain that right now." Kakashi said, entirely calm.

"Aw don't tell me we're leaving soon." Naruto said through a mouth full of sausage. "I'm still hungry." but as he looked up to see the other three on high alert he stopped and looked around.

"We've got trackers on our tail." Kakashi said calmly. "Sasuke, stay with Mai. We'll be back. "Sakura, Naruto. You two are coming with me." He stood up to leave and the two boys followed suit. But Mai stood up as well.

"I don't think we should separate." she said firmly. "I can keep up. We need to stick together."

"It isn't a matter of sticking together. It's a matter of throwing them off. It won't matter if we stick together if we can't lose them. Now they aren't here yet, we'll head them off and set them down the wrong path. We need to move quickly. You two pack up and destroy any evidence that we were here while we're gone. Naruto, Sakura, lets go. And before Mai had the chance to object anymore the three of them were gone and she was left standing next to a dying fire with Sasuke, the dark haired boy. Out of the four of them, she felt least comfortable around him. He hadn't said one word to her, and only once had he even acknowledged her presence. Even now he said nothing. He was staring around the trees.

"We've got about 10 minutes." he said looking over at her. "We should start with the fire." Mai nodded and quickly clasped her hands together to start a water jutsu. But Sasuke was at her side in an instant pushing her hands down. "No. You can't do any techniques here. They'll be able to tell since they're searching for you. Let me do it. Start clearing the kindling." Mai nodded silently. She had forgotten that the trackers didn't know she was with them. One stupid mistake like that and she could have been toast.

It took them nearly the entire 10 minutes they had to clean up, and they were working fast. Mai had taken all of the broken sticks she could find and bundled them up. They had worked in silence, Mai could think of nothing important to say, she had been too focused on the task at hand, and she got the impression that Sasuke just didn't talk much in general. Mai had just dispersed the last of the broken sticks on various decoy paths when Kakashi jumped down from the tree next to her.

"Mai, Sasuke. We need to hurry; Sakura and Naruto won't be far behind. We need to start moving. We lost the trackers but it won't take them long to get past the genjutsu." Mai nodded and started to walk toward him but Sasuke pulled her back. And no sooner had he pulled her to his side but nearly 15 tracker ninjas jumped out of the trees all around them. The one who had impersonated Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke. Mai felt exceedingly foolish. She had been so thankful for the security and sleep and food that she fell for the trap. She had forgotten one of the most important rules. Don't let desperation cloud your true vision.

"Play time is over little girl." one of the more vicious looking trackers said.

"We'll have to fight." Sasuke hissed into her ear. Mai nodded infinitesimally, and as the first tracker lunged at her, she snapped into action. It was so much easier to defend herself now that she had some rest.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" she yelled, and instantly 14 other Mai's appeared around her. Sasuke was engaged in close combat with the tracker who had spoken, and he was now wavering dangerously on his feet. With one more swift blow, Sasuke knocked the masked tracker to the ground and he didn't get up. Meanwhile, Mai's clones were fighting several of the trackers. The real Mai had hopped up into a tree and was now picking off the trackers with bolts of lightning. Sasuke sent one tracker flying into the tree with a powerful tornado kick. It shook the tree so badly that Mai almost fell out.

The two were doing fine until more trackers started arriving.

"They've got a whole squadron after you?!" Sasuke asked exasperated as he appeared at her side in the tree. They were hidden slightly behind a few branches. Sasuke had created clones too and now looked like about 25 trackers fighting about 30 Sasukes and maybe 15 Mais. "Let's get out of here." he said taking her by the wrist and helping her to her feet. "It won't be long before they notice none of them are real." The pair started bounding full speed through the trees.

"What about the other three?" Mai asked as they jumped to the other side of the path.

"They'll be fine." Sasuke said. "You weren't kidding about being able to keep up. You were pretty good back there." Mai looked over at him. He had no emotion on his face, but a quick returned glance told her he meant what he was saying.

"Well I wouldn't lie about something like that. Lying in a situation like that will get people killed." she said. She knew this all too well.


	3. Chapter 3

The trees seemed to be crawling with trackers. Sasuke and Mai hadn't gotten far before the trackers seemed to swarm around them and they had been forced to climb even higher. The masked menaces seemed to come from everywhere, and whether they were shadow clones or not was neither relevant nor easily determinable to the pair because if a clone found them, the real one wasn't far behind. They couldn't stop to breath, much less look for the others. Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura were no where to be seen.

"Mai! Look out" Sasuke yelled. But it was too late. In an instant Mai had fallen to her knees on a limb, wavering in a state of delirious dizziness. At almost the same moment 3 trackers dropped down from the treetops, surrounding. Sasuke. What is this!? Mai thought, blinking. Her body didn't seem to want to move. Her fingers were contorting rigidly, resembling claws, and she couldn't find the strength to stand. As she looked around, she realized that everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. She could see Sasuke a few trees away fighting off three trackers, but his kicks seemed blurred.

"Sasuke! Help!" Mai screamed. But it took her a long time to get the words out. Her head was spinning, and her body ached, and with all her effort, she couldn't fight it off. Even if she had known that it was just a genjutsu, she wouldn't have been able to figure her way out of it. She could see Sasuke trying to get over to her but every time he took a step a tracker got in his way. She heard him shout in frustration.

"Mai! Fight it off! It's not real! Fight it!" Mai closed her eyes tight. But she instantly started to slide off the limb, and in her slow mindset by the time she could react it was too late. She had fallen too far from the limb and her hopeless swats did nothing but catch air between her fingers. She was bracing herself to hit the ground when she felt someone's arms close around her. However all she could see was the tree limb rising further away from her. She couldn't see anyone around her and the confliction between sight and feeling startled her. She closed her eyes until she heard Kakashi's voice. But she couldn't understand what he was whispering in her ear until suddenly her senses started to match up again.

"Come on, we need to get rid of these guys, you know how to shake 'em off better than us. You did it for 2 days. Keep your head Mai." Kakashi said letting Mai get her feet back on the ground. A moment later Sasuke had landed beside her, followed by 5 trackers. Sasuke took another step towards Mai, almost stepping in front of her, and she was back to back with Kakashi. _How am I going to get out of this?_ Mai thought, her mind racing. _I have to get us out of this._ and as she looked around her surrounding she noticed something. The treetops seemed so far up that they were almost in the lowest clouds. And despite the fact that the sky was relatively clear, the biggest cloud seemed to be passing over them right now.

"Sasuke, Kakashi," Mai hissed, almost silently. "Don't move. And follow my lead." She knew they heard her because they both planted their feet a little more firmly on the ground. "Sky's Eye no Jutsu!!" Mai screamed, and just as a swirling tunnel of cloud shot out of the sky she locked arms with both Kakashi and Sasuke and pulled them with her through the eye. They propelled up to the tops of the trees, landing softly on one of the topmost branches. Down below she could hear the pained screams of the trackers.

"We need to find the other two, before the cloud spreads. If they're within range they'll be trapped along with the rest of them." Mai said to her stunned counterparts as she started jumping through the trees. Sasuke and Kakashi snapped out of their disbelief quickly.

"Naruto and Sakura will be fine. After I realized we hadn't thrown off all the trackers told them to keep going. A few were after them, but nothing they couldn't handle." Mai's breath was starting to steady. They were safe. The trackers would be stuck in her trap for at least an hour. That would give them time to throw them off. "That was brilliant Mai." Kakashi said as they climbed even higher. "You really came through in the clutch. Quick thinking. I guess that's how you held them off for two days." Mai smiled.

"Well, I would have been toast if you didn't have such good timing. I don't even know how far I fell." Mai said. Sasuke looked over at her, but she took no notice.

_She would have been fine without Kakashi._ he thought to himself. _She knows how to take care of herself._

"You weren't even gonna wait for us?!" Sasuke was snapped out of his thoughts by Naruto's voice. Naruto and Sakura (who was jumping the limbs in Sasuke's wake) had joined them.

"I knew we'd run into you sooner or later." Kakashi said with his ever-present though perpetually invisible smirk.

"We could have died! There were at least 4 of those trackers!" he said in a rage.

"Really? Four? Forgive me for not underestimating you Naruto." Kakashi said.

"Damn right you should be so- . . . wait. I mean, of course we could to it the whole time! I had the situation entirely under control!" Naruto said still sounding annoyed. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Well congratulations. For now we need to get as far away from here as we can, plain and simple. It's probably a 2 day journey back to Konoha, And until then we won't be in the territory of any nation. Which is probably a good thing. We will want to minimize contact with anyone." Kakashi said; the trees were becoming more sparse now.

"I should warn you all. We'll be coming very close to the Hidden Sound Village. I don't need to tell you that tensions run high between the Sound and Konoha. We need to keep our heads down. That means you Naruto, must try to resist such loud outbursts." Kakashi said sending the blonde boy a stern look. "We need to avoid any combat." he said as he sailed out of the last tree, landing silently on the ground. "This will be a good time to practice your deception techniques."

The four chunins landed next to him. Naruto stumbled, landing flat on his face. Sakura pulled him up by the collar with a scoff and planted him back on his feet with a scalding look of disdain. "We don't have time to slow down right now. We need to get as far away as we can in the next hour." Kakashi said. The five comrades continued in silence, with the exception of Naruto who still couldn't hold back brief explosions of noise. He was doing better than usual, but unlike the other three, Mai hadn't known him long enough observe this phenomenon.

Everything looked unfamiliar to Mai as the made their way down the path to Konoha. It was astounding to her that she could be only a day's walk out of the village. The lands had obviously changed in the 10 years it had been since she'd left the palace gates. When she was small her father used to take her out to the outskirts and past the city limits to practice her chakra. But as time went on there was no need for it. She could practice in the safety of the city and there was no need for her to endanger herself. She was the only remaining Sasaki heir after all.

Mai lived her life in the solitude of the family mansion. It wasn't so lonely, as most solitude is. She had her friends from the academy. But her state was solitude defined as confinement. She wasn't forbidden to leave the palace, but it was frowned upon, and she really had no need to. Everything she needed or wanted could be found right where she was. It was only after the death of her father that she was forbade from leaving.

Yukio in his attempt to force her into wedlock used his power to manipulate her. It was only in the last month that Mai had tried everything to get herself out. Heartbroken after her father's passing and infuriated by the flagrant abuse of power that Yukio was getting away with, Mai had shut herself off completely. Until she had escaped she hadn't left her quarters but for the wee hours of the morning to scout out possible escape routes. She hadn't spoken to anyone at all after her father's funeral.

Now everything was so much brighter; as she followed close behind Kakashi down the sunny dirt path Mai was happy for the first time in a fortnight. In her darkest days she thought she'd never be happy again, but here she was among comrades. She was free, or at least well on her way to being so.

"Mai" Kakashi slowed his pace a little to drop back next to her. "I need to ask you about what happened to you before we crossed paths." Mai looked over at him out of the corner of her eye. She said nothing but Kakashi either sensed that it was okay to ask, or didn't care to wait for permission. "What happened to your father?" A tremor shot through Mai's body. She hadn't thought about the horrors of her father's death in nearly two weeks, after she'd told herself that it wasn't healthy to dwell on it. That was when she had decided to run.

Furthermore, she hadn't spoken of it to anyone, fearing that she would be deemed insane or a liar. The circumstances surrounding the death of the senior Sasaki were mysterious to say the least. Of course a lovely little cover story of an untimely heart attack had been put up by the authorities. But that wasn't what really happened. And if anyone knew Yukio like Mai did, they knew that 90 of the people who have died of "heart attacks" haven't really died of them. Kakashi must have known something. Why else would he be asking?

"He died." She said solemnly. She could feel the emotions start to flood her senses again. It was a mixture of anger and sadness. She could feel the tears starting to come to the corners of her eyes, but she was also overwhelmed with the burning desire to bring justice to the bastard who took his life: Yukio.

"Yes, we've heard that. I need to know how. Because you and I both know that it wasn't a Heart attack." Kakashi said in a painfully calm voice. Mai didn't think she could speak without starting the waterworks; she stayed silent for a good minute before Kakashi spoke up again. "I understand it hurts Mai. And I'm very proud of you for not wearing your emotions on your sleeve. But I need to know." He slowed his pace, coming to a stop on a branch. Mai stopped with him and so did Sakura and Sasuke, but Naruto attempted to stop too late and missed a step, falling 10 feet before he caught himself on a branch below, screaming curses up at the four above him for not warning him. Everyone ignored him.

Kakashi must have realized Mai had no intentions of answering him under the current circumstances. "We should stop for the night." he said calmly. "Tomorrow we'll be passing the Sound Village. We'll need our wits." The sun was beginning to set over the trees. "Mai, I understand it's difficult, and you can take your time to gather your thoughts. But I need to know what happened."

Mai nodded, avoiding everyone's eyes as Kakashi started down through the trees to the ground. Everyone followed suit, Naruto nearly falling to the ground if it wasn't for Sakura. Sasuke lagged behind, staring at Mai with a puzzled expression. She didn't return the gaze, but began to hop down after the other three down. Sasuke landed beside her a few minutes later.


End file.
